League of Legends supports to receive additional changes

A frequent poster from the League of Legends team on the forums by the name of Riot Meddler posted new announcements for the support role. Meddler’s posts are typically about his thoughts on the gameplay state of the game, and this time he talks about the implications of Patch 8.12.

His post initially talks about and Patch 8.9’s impact on League of Legends due to the changes it made to the mana system. The objective was to lower mana costs early on and then increase them for the late game, which is when mana typically becomes irrelevant.

The meat of the post tackles the support role, especially since many recent patches have tweaked income for support champions. One consequence is the intention for some support items to become more expensive.

In regards to kits for support champions in League of Legends, Riot Meddler has spoken specifically about changing Janna and Lulu. He believes that such “shield based” champions defeat the purpose of a risk/reward gamble that players like to take when looking for counter play in the laning phase.

To encourage a more intense and attention demanding gameplay for the bottom lane, shield abilities will likely have their effects on a reduced timer to keep players of champions like Janna and Lulu on their toes.

These changes are for the present state of League of Legends; however, Riot is already thinking about more drastic changes to the role so as to spice up the gameplay. They currently feel that supports are too good at removing an AD carry’s weakness.

Their current thought process regarding the subject involves making changes to how Supports make money and earn experience points. This is a rather interesting topic since they could make either small changes like they always have or they could completely redesign the metagame since those two currencies are the lifeblood of any champion. For this reason, it is unsurprising that Riot is taking their time thinking about it.